Life starts when you are a pensioner!

Abu Ahmed, a retired elderly man after years of service in the field of education as a teacher, has been living alone after his wife died and each one of his children immigrated to a different country.  Work was his only occupation which he is now deprived from.

One day, he got up from his bed without anything to look forward to. He looked at himself on the mirror and said with regret:

“Oh man! You had to retire after 30 years of service. You wasted your life between the chalk, paper, and the screams of your pupils!!

The end of your days is as a dark as a black-board! You have empty pockets. You are left with nothing! May God have mercy on you!”

He sighed painfully after recalling the good old days when he was young and everyone was asking about him and trying to friend him, so he can teach their children.

And now, his days may pass without hearing the door bell. He sadly thought that if he died, his death would not be known for few days!!

In the midst of his ideas, the door-bell rang. He was astonished and ran to answer it and find out who lost their way and came knocking at his door instead.

It was a young man, smartly dressed and before he even said anything, Abu Ahmad told him:

“-Sorry but you have the wrong address, Mr. The Director-General is in the next building.”

He wanted to close the door, but the young man stopped him and said:

- No I don’t think so! You are Professor Abu Ahmed?

Abu Ahmed was surprised by the fact that this young man was addressing him. So he replied: “Yes, I am.”

-Hello Mr Abu Ahmed! I am “Said”, the minister’s of pension and social security private driver.

-Hello son! How can I help you?

-       His honour decided that the pensioners deserved the ministerial luxury car and the driver most. So he allocated each day to a pensioner when he/she can have the car and its driver to themselves and they can go wherever they want.

Abu Ahmed, did not believe his ears and thought it was one of the scams from one of his previous lousy students. Even though, he still looked through the window and saw the latest model “Mercedes” car parked in front of the door, he then asked with an astonished face:

-       “Really?” the young man replied:

- “If you served this country Professor, during the best years of your life: exhausting yourself teaching and educating generation after generation. This is the least thing that the country can do for you. What would you rather, God forbid! Take the bus or walk?”

- God! This is a nice gesture from His Excellency the Minister

Abu Ahmed got dressed, went out and got inside the Mercedes. As he was making himself comfortable, the driver asked him:

- With God’s will, where would you like to go? Abu Ahmed replied:

- I don’t know! I am not used to cars like this and I don’t have an idea where this people usually take it to!!! The driver said:

- What do you think if we pass by the Pensioners village, so you can see the villas built by the social security for the retired citizens? Where they can spend the rest of their life in honour and dignity? Abu Ahmed replied, wondering:

- Villas at once? You must be hallucinating son? We, the pensioners if we could afford the rent for our tiny flats, we must be very lucky and thank God million times for that!!

- You are going to see yourself! I am not kidding! Uncle

The car arrived to the luxurious village and Abu Ahmed got the honour of meeting the director who received him with a wide smile and warm welcome. Then he took him to the villa provided for him. It was a “grandiose” double story villa, a swimming pool, furniture you can dream of. His head was spinning, and he asked the director of the village:

-Seriously, is this mine? This is definitely for one of the Excellencies’ the Ministers! It is impossible for a pensioner like me to afford a palace like this! The director answered him back:

-Still Professor, how can be the Minister better than you? Your pride is that you served the country your entire life. Do you wish to live in the street, or a flat anyhow! With God’s will, just give us few months and we shall give you the keys.

Abu Ahmed almost dropped dead from the intensity of joy and decided to meet the Minister personally to thank him for this generosity. He asked the driver to head towards the ministry hoping he would receive the honour of meeting the minister. As he walked through the door, he saw the receptionist sitting down, having a cigarette and watching TV. Abu Ahmed greeted him, but he answered with indifference:

-Yes, what do you want? Abu Ahmed replied with modesty:

-“I want if you may allow me to meet his Excellency the Minister.” The Guard replied back mocking:

- The Minister! Are you sure? And who are you?” Abu Ahmed, replied, and completely embarrassed:

- I am not an important person, my apologies for the inconvenience.  I am a retired teacher and I would like to thank his honour on the behalf of the others for his generosity with us. On the behalf of: all the retired teachers who everyone in this society has forgotten about.

As soon as the guard heard the word “retired”, he jumped of his seat and stood on his feet, snuffed out his cigarette, and said with a shaky voice:

- Are you retired Sir,? What an honour, sir! I hope that I didn’t upset you! My apologies if I did. I didn’t know who you were! Please have a seat!

Abu Ahmed sat down while the receptionist picked-up the phone and said:

-“Your Excellency the Minister? I am sorry to disturb you! I know that you are on a Meeting, but there is a very important person awaiting you.” The Minister replied back with a nervous tone:

-“who is this person that can interrupt my meeting like this? A Minister? An Ambassador?  Or a member of the Parliament?”

-“No Sir!I am afraid; He is not a Minister, nor an ambassador! This person is more important! Sir, this is a Retired teacher!!”

The Minister jumped from his seat and said:

-       “Why haven’t you mentioned it from the beginning? I am coming now!”

-       What are you saying? Please do not upset me! You have served the country all your life and educated generations of Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Ministers.. What do you expect me to do? Let you wait by the reception? Or give you an appointment in a month time? Go Man and enjoy your life. You are a retired person in an Arab country! Who is like you? I am and the entire Ministry at your service.

Abu Ahmed left the Ministry, completely shocked of what is taking place around him. He walked towards the car and the driver asked him:

-Where shall we go now? Abu Ahmed replied:

- Let me go the bank to withdraw my pension, and with God’s will, it should be already in my account and we don’t waste our journey for nothing. Every month there is a delay, sometimes it’s there on the 1st or on the 5th. I hope this month is spot-on.

When Abu Ahmed arrived to the bank he went to the counter and the cashier asked him:

-       Yes! Abu Ahmed answered:

-       May God bless you my son! I am a retired teacher and here to withdraw my pension. I know that it may not be on my account yet, but please try not to be angry! Could you please check if there was an exception this month and it has been mended earlier than usual?

As soon as the banker heard the word “Retired”, he opened his door and told Abu Ahmed:

-       Please come with me to the Director’s office! Would you like a tea or coffee? Your desires are my commands. If the pension is there or not, the entire bank staffs, from the Director to the clerk are at your service as well as any retired person!! Abu Ahmed thanked him and said:

-       God bless you my son! I need $100.00 rent for my flat, and can’t stand the queue. Could you please check if I have this amount on my account? The cashier answered after looking at his computer and said:

-       Sorry Sir, but your pension is not there yet. Abu Ahmed was disappointed and replied:

-       Lord have mercy on us! What to do now? The banker smiled back and said:

-       Still, Mr Abu Ahmed, don’t get upset over a $100.00!

-       Son, it’s  the need and I don’t like to be humiliated by the landlord! The cashier smiled another time and said:

-       If only you let me finish my story! The government has opened for each retired person an account of $200,000 as a reward for the “end –of-service”, would you like me to withdraw something from it? As soon as Abu Ahmed heard $200,000, he immediately fainted out of shock and Joy. During his unconsciousness he heard people saying:” what happened to him? Why is this? Is the evil eye? He is a lucky men, he is retired!” A young girl came closer and said: “ I wish he will accept to marry me!! Every girl’s dream is to marry a pensioner!! Please wake-up! don’t you want to marry-me? I am young and pretty, will you marry me?

-       At those words, Abu Ahmed opened his eyes to say “Yes, I will marry you, my dear!” to find in from of him, a horrifying face of a man with very thick lips, and unfriendly eyes saying:

-       May you never marry! I am pretty and you want to marry me!! He looked around him and saw rough nurses and a Doctor saying:

Good, Electric sessions have brought you back to your consciousness, but what can we do to get rid of the hallucinations? Since you retired and your children put you in a Psychiatric hospital and you are floating in hallucinations:” You have cars, villas, Ministers and Banks, etc”. Nurse, please transfer him to the ward for hopeless cases and let us have a break from these pensioners!

-        Wish you a happy retirementJ